eMusic

Start Your Trial

Room On Fire

by

The Strokes

 
  • Pick
Room On Fire
view larger image View Larger

Rate it!

Avg: 4.0 (295 ratings)

The Strokes reassert their reign as the after-hours party band for NYC's early-aughts revival

  • We Say...

    Review by Matthew Fritch

    What does Room On Fire have in common with Trout Mask Replica and Metal Machine Music? They're all highly scrutinized but seldom played. The Strokes' second album actually went gold — albeit quietly — but the point remains: Nothing could have drowned out the critical white noise surrounding the follow-up to the game-changing Is This It. There was a studio controversy that played out in public, as Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) began the recording sessions but ceded responsibility to Is This It producer Gordon Raphael. (Evidently, the Strokes sounded "mellow and sinister" when recording to analog tape, but Raphael's Macintosh G4 achieved the band's patented low-lying wall of sound.) There was Room On Fire's opening line, "I wanna be forgotten," pounced on and misinterpreted as frontman Julian Casablancas' statement of anti-celebrity. But most of all, there was just Room On Fire, an entirely too-logical successor to Is This It whose only failure is insufficient musical progression from a plateau with a top-of-the-world view. "12:51" is the only real stab in a different direction, but considering its Cars-like keyboard and handclaps, that direction points backwards about two decades. Room On Fire finds the Strokes still reveling in the blurry, bar-hopping East Village nightlife later fetishized in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: a series of sloppy hook-ups ("Meet Me In The Bathroom"), mixed signals ("Under Control") and cocktail-napkin nonsense ("Under Control") all spill out as groggily recounted tales set to chatty garage rock. While the Strokes asserted their reign as the after-hours party band for NYC's early-aughts revival, listen to Room On Fire and try not to detect the ramblings of a pathological loner. Whether assertively singing "I never needed anybody" on "Between Love & Hate" or mumbling the Zen breakup sentiment of "The End Has No End," Casablancas is most definitely alone in this Room, unwilling to let anyone in or change the way his band sounds.

  • They Say...

    Review by Heather Phares, All Music Guide

    Unlike many bands that release notable debut albums and then take years to deliver a follow-up, the Strokes got Room on Fire out as quickly as possible after their lengthy tour for Is This It. Good thing, too; the two years between their debut and this album were long enough for the expectations for -- and the backlash against -- a new Strokes album to reach formidable proportions. And the Strokes sound like they have a lot to prove on Room on Fire, not to their naysayers, but to themselves. On the surface, the album isn't drastically different than Is This It, but it's not predictable. Instead of delivering an album's worth of "Last Nite"s, "Someday"s, and "NYC Cop"s, Room on Fire expands on their debut's off-kilter and complex tracks, like "Is This It?" and "Hard to Explain." The album's first single, "12:51," signals the Strokes' intent: its whistling, synth-like guitars and handclaps are undeniably catchy, but at first, the song seems to be searching for a structure. Eventually, though, it becomes sneakily addictive -- it's a stealth pop song. Likewise, the album opens with "What Ever Happened?," on which Julian Casablancas snarls "I wanna be forgotten/And I don't wanna be reminded" -- not exactly the likeliest start to what should be a triumphant second album from one of the most celebrated rock bands of the 2000s. In many ways, Room on Fire is the Strokes' bid to be taken seriously, which may be why they began this album with producer Nigel Godrich before returning to Is This It producer Gordon Raphael. To his credit, Raphael gives the album its own sound: it's brighter and fuller than Is This It's low-rent production. Room on Fire also has a distinct attitude. Is This It sounded effortless, but it's evident that a great deal of effort was put into Room on Fire. Yet the album's most crafted moments are its most exciting: "Automatic Stop," a playful, poignant look back at a love triangle, lopes along to a reggae beat (and features the witty lyrics "So many fish there in the sea/I wanted her/He wanted me"). "Under Control," an awkwardly gorgeous homage to '60s soul, is possibly the best Strokes song yet. Several songs recapture some of Is This It's exuberance; not surprisingly, they're the ones that the band wrote while on tour. "You Talk Way Too Much" revs on one of their most Velvets-y riffs; "Meet Me in the Bathroom"'s Motown-like bassline and shimmery guitars add some style to its underlying sleaze. However, the Strokes are a different band than when they recorded Is This It, and Room on Fire's best songs acknowledge that. There's a weariness lingering around Room on Fire like stale smoke, especially on "The End Has No End," a loop of a song about a nagging breakup that repeats its seemingly nonsensical title in a surprisingly affecting way. "Reptilia," meanwhile, sounds like a long night of partying turned sour. "Please don't slow me down if I'm going too fast," Casablancas wails (most of Room on Fire's distortion comes from his vocals, which give the impression that he's gargled with turpentine and brushed his teeth with steel wool for the past two years). The motif of moving too fast and not minding it winds through Room on Fire, reflecting its svelte 33-minute running time as well as the swiftness of the Strokes' career. This compressed feel, the precision of the band's playing and arrangements, and the way every song comes to an abrupt stop sometimes make the album sound too closed-off. Room on Fire's best moments fight against this tendency and suggest that the Strokes are continuing to grow, perhaps beyond what their listeners want from them. Some may gripe that it's never as good as the first time, but Room on Fire shows that even after all that happened to the Strokes, they can still surprise.

  • You Say...

    Write a Review

    I would like to say...

    Artist: The Strokes

    Album: Room On Fire

    Review Title: (maximum 50 characters)

    Your Review: (maximum 1,000 characters)

    Cancel

    Please keep your comments to the recordings themselves, and be courteous and respectful. Thanks! For further info, read our Community Guidelines.

“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”


Rolling Stone
Start Your Trial

Recently Viewed

Back
Forward

© 1998-2009 eMusic.com Inc. eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks in the USA or other countries. All rights reserved.

All Music Guide © 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC

Facebook®, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia® are registered trademarks of their respective owners, Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Neither Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. nor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. are partners or sponsors of eMusic. eMusic uses the Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia API but is not endorsed or certified by Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. eMusic does not pre-screen, monitor, endorse nor assume any liability for websites, contents, products, services or claims made by Facebook, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia®.

Legal or copyright question regarding Facebook, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia content on eMusic? Please email us.